The National Rifle Association today released a statement reacting to an NBC story on the state of play on gun control in Washington. According to the story, the NRA is set to support universal background checks for gun purchases, which would require private citizens to run background checks any time they sell a firearm to another private citizen.

The NRA says that this isn’t true.

An article appearing today on NBCNews.com is falsely reporting that NRA will not oppose legislation being negotiated in the U.S. Senate that would mandate background checks for all gun purchasers.

The story posted on NBCNews.com alleges that NRA will not oppose expanding the background check system to include all private firearm sales, “provided the legislation does not require private gun sellers to maintain records of the checks”. This statement is completely untrue. The NRA opposes criminalizing private firearms transfers between law-abiding individuals, and therefore opposes an expansion of the background check system.

NBC may well have made the story up. That network has recently been caught deceptively editing video on a number of occasions, one to inject race into the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and another, to smear then GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.

"Universal" background checks are not universal. Criminals who have no hesitation in killing someone are not going to suddenly obey a background check requirement. All it does is make a record of which lawful citizens own which guns.